{"id":229765,"date":"2026-02-20T12:56:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=229765"},"modified":"2026-02-20T12:59:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:59:32","slug":"darwin-day-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/20\/darwin-day-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Darwin Day with skulls, tide pool critters, more"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>
\"showcasing
The Honolulu Zoo display included an elephant tooth, a giant tortoise skull, and an orangutan skull.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To celebrate Charles Darwin\u2019s 217th birthday, the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience<\/a> (CTAHR<\/abbr>) Insect Museum in Gilmore Hall buzzed with scientific discovery on February 12. Darwin Day 2026 honored the importance of evolution and science in daily life showcasing a dynamic range of research from across the islands.<\/p>\n

\"butterflies\"<\/p>\n

Scientists from the Kewalo Marine Laboratory showcased “tide pool critters,” including corals and various marine invertebrates.<\/p>\n

“Darwin Day is about raising awareness of how science has a positive impact on everybody\u2019s lives,” said Dan Rubinoff, UH<\/abbr> Insect Museum director and CTAHR<\/abbr> professor. “It\u2019s really fun for us because it\u2019s collaborative. We have so many other labs sharing their research with the public in this context”.<\/p>\n

The Honolulu Zoo Society presented an educational display of skulls and “biofacts” to illustrate the impact of the environment on animal evolution.<\/p>\n

The event also featured planthoppers from the UH<\/abbr> Chong Lab, mantis shrimp from the UH<\/abbr> Porter Vision Lab, Darwin\u2019s finches presented by Luke Campillo, Native Hawaiian plants from Lyon Arboretum and endemic snails from the Bishop Museum.<\/p>\n

Education and outreach<\/h2>\n

\"charles<\/p>\n

The event is part of the museum\u2019s broader mission to support research and engage the public through tours and seasonal outreach events.<\/p>\n

“We want people to take away that science is important and that they should support it,” Rubinoff said.<\/p>\n

For more information on the museum and its collections, visit the UH<\/abbr> Insect Museum website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"people<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UH<\/abbr> Insect Museum in Gilmore Hall buzzed with scientific discovery to celebrate Charles Darwin\u2019s 217th birthday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":229767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[212,508,9],"class_list":["post-229765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-college-of-tropical-agriculture-and-human-resilience","tag-kewalo-marine-laboratory","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/manoa-ctahr-darwin-day-3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229765"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229787,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229765\/revisions\/229787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}